Mu, thanks. Its good point. I lighteed up this area a bit and now gets more three dimmentional look.
Roja, you are absolutelly right. Low jaw is placed about 5mm too forward. I have noticed this mistake some time ago, but shading was too advanced to move backward. Thats were lack of proper preliminary sketched takes price 
I am working on hair, dificult part.
In the meanwhile, quick 1 hour sketch in oil, 5x7 inches.
“Little Buddha”
Regards,
K.Polak
One more 1 hour quick sketch. As always comments are welcome.
“Polar Bear”
Regards,
K.Polak
Haven’t checked any refs for this but I feel the head looks a bit squeezed, mainly the nose and the mouth…
just a hunch 
love the nomade. A couple of eyes will give him a lotta personality
Done.
It seems more jaggy (higher local contrast) on the monitor then on the canvas. I guess simply canvas dynamic range is much higher then monitor. I tried to get as close as possible. Looks better in real 
Any comments are welcome.
Regards,
K.Polak
Its time to make Mr Forbes portrait by photo provided generously my wetcanvas’ lisilk user. The photo was cropped and processed to better visualise Mr Forbes face features. Here is the reference:
And here is the first layer to establish main shapes:
W&N Griffin Oils on cavas board, 12x16’’. To keep this thread alive any comments are welcome
Regards,
K.Polak
I just picked up “Classical Drawing Atelier”, a book by J. Aristides - I had seen it mentioned many times on forums and by Intervain here - it’s something I think you should really check out with your interest in oil. It would be great to see more contrast and oopfmph (for lack of a better word :)) in your pieces - getting a larger value range, and even, perhaps, just working larger, might allow you to get more detail in your pieces.
Looking forward to seeing more!
Thanks Rebecca. I have just ckecked “Classical Drawing Atelier” and price here in Australia is $AU59 comparing to $AU24 on Amazon. So Amazon goes. At the same time I ordered “The Painter in Oil” by Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst. 400+ pages for 15 bucks sounds resonable Just kidding. Seems to be interesting book. Thank for info.
I know what you mean with contrast and size. This one is larger so hopefully capable to keep more detail. Lets see how it goes
Regards,
K.Polak
That’s great! I think you will really, really like this book. I have so many books on my “to buy” list that I am afraid to buy any of them 
- but this one seemed irresistable. I am so happy to see a revival of atelier training, I just wish that I had known about ateliers a little bit earlier. But this gives me a bit of vicarious atelier living, and who knows, I may end up at one!
Hey krpolak
great start on that last portrait.
I think his left cheek bone should be more protruding. (i know you will say I painted it, but very lightly, but I still think it should be more protruding than you painted it )
Also, be careful where you’re going with that upper lip (lef side). i think it might be easy to get the mouth out of line over there.
the angle of the cap’s flap (donnow the english word) is off. You’ve painted it parallel to the brow line but it’s really not.
Didn’t want to sound harsh. If I do I apologize. Just thought it might be best to come up with these at the early stage the painting is, rather than you having to find out when it’s nearly finished
Looking forward to see the next update
Rebeccak,
I have organised small, temporary, but my own alterie in my home. Its great, I can mess paints and brushed around and who cares
NR43, I would be offended by lack of comments hehe Seriously, feedback, especially constructive is always welcome. The issues you mentioned are well spotted. Generaly, if somebody is interested in the process, I try to work from larger shapes to smaller and get likeness by comparition and correction. At the moment I dont care much about correct values, ligter/darker is good enough. But you are definitelly right, it needs wider range. Right now I am trying to lock shapes and lines, so will create sort of map for more accurate tonning in the meanwhile.
As you can see here is next update. Few point that come to me after this session:
I tried to lock eyes first, they are the most important. His left one is a bit too small, so it doesnt get close enough to cheek and create impression that cheek should be cut off closer, which propably is not right jujding by jaw-cheek-ear line. Eyes need more work, definitely.
Then next was the nose, its not easy part considering play of light and shadow
His lips are very tricky. Its sort of lips that seems to smile even is he doesnt really. He must be happy man. I already see that his right lips end goes too high. Very tricky. Lets leave mustache alone
And generally I tried to introduce some more valuse so shapes that could give me more stuff to compare. Now I must sit and think
Thanks again guys for your comment and encouragement.
Regards,
K.Polak
PS: I put his left lip side too far
Next step. I worked on eyes and nose. I think now proportions are closer. Also I worked on lips and introduced mustache. Improved modeling and detail around jaw. Lips are not fully solved, but definitelly closer. It seems to me that there is some progress, hopefully.
Regards,
K.Polak
this portrait is turning out nice!
I don’t know what resolution you are working at, but my advise is to work bigger than you need…so you can always zoom in on details without going to small. Could you post some close-ups? Then its easier to c&c (for me)
keep it up!
-Cyanid
Cyanid,
Thanks, I like it also so far and that is not usual
The piece size is 12x16 inches, no resolution, its analog media. Oil on canvas board
I will post some details after next few stages. At the moment I am pretty much blocking larger shapes and in fact there is no real detail. If I will make a close up there will be just few greish spots
Regards,
K.Polak
my bad! :banghead:
that explains a lot, I was wondering where the unusual texture (for digital media) did come from haha, but now I know. well, good luck and I’ll see how it turns out then
All right, flying on wings of your comments guys here is next stage
Working on likeness and I think I am getting close. I impoved cap shadow, cheeks shapes, nose, added some details to mustache and few other minor things. What your fresh eye says?
Regarding background and other parts I am gong to paint is in semi realistic way with larger brush strokes. I would like to put focus in his eyes and since they will be more or less in shady area (due to lighting) I think keeping only his face fairly detailed will help me with focus point.
Regards,
K.Polak
hi Krystien, nsome nice oil studies you have in this thread, especially some of the little ones! Last portrait is coming on well, though I’d still say you could push the darkness of his whole face where it is in shadow more. If you squint your eyes and look at the original reference, you’ll see the whole right hand of his face is practically a blackish block, with highlights picked out on the nose, left of the moustach, lip and chin. I’d say don’t be afraid to go even darker on the right hand side of his face (as we see it). Notice also how the whites of his eyes are a darker shade of grey than the highlight on his nose, yet yours are about the same value currently. but all the features are really well placed, which is the toughest bit, so kudos to you on that!
